It's the War, Stupid

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[fourfivesix]

It's the War, Stupid

Europeans and the left aren't going to give George Bush credit for building schools and hospitals in Iraq.

by Larry Miller

"OKAY. It doesn't seem all right to me, but what do I know? Nothing. What do they know? Everything. So I guess everything's okay."

That's, more or less, what I've been saying to myself for the last year. Not quite out loud, just muttered most of the time, when I'm alone, or when the kids are watching TV, which is much the same thing. What makes me mutter so?

Seeing a headline about another 2, or 5--or 12--American soldiers killed.

Hearing the top folks say, "No, we don't need more troops. Got plenty now."

Having a hard date of June 30 announced and underlined again and again, instead of, "We'll do it as soon as we're ready, not a day before, and it'll be this year, or next year, or whenever, and, no, you don't get to know when. Next question."

And especially watching well-known nests of domestic and imported bad guys being allowed to grow and grow and grow and grow, and get stronger, and make their plans. And watch. And wait. And attack.

I mean, please, anyone who ever reads past page two has known since President Bush landed on that aircraft carrier that Fallujah was the headquarters, the homeland, the core of everyone who ever worked and killed for Saddam Hussein. It's not just a place, a city, a neighborhood, with terrific down-home folks going to choir practice and trying to get by in tough times. It's the place--the bull's eye, it's got them all, and it might as well be called Tortureville, or Saddamfield, or Baathburg, and the best of them could most charitably be called "loyalists." What in the world did anyone imagine was going to sprout up there in the last 12 months? A chamber of commerce? A garden club? A band shell for Sunday programs of Sousa?

All right, wait. Sorry. Let me repeat my mantra; that always helps. Breath in, breath out . . . "What do I know? Nothing. What do they know? Everything. It's all fine, just fine."

Hey, it didn't help much that time. What's wrong? It's like what they say about heroin, the effect is less and less, until you finally have to take it just not to feel horrible.

I MENTIONED the president and the aircraft carrier for a reason, something else I've held in for a year.

I hated it. I support what we've done the whole way; I think we've started to crack the hardest granite in history; I think we're in World War Three, Four, Five, and Six-through-Ten combined--and I think we should be--but I hated that landing so much.

It made me wince like a big sip of sour milk, and I never said it then, because I didn't know why, and it didn't seem helpful, and it's surely not helpful now. But I'm saying it anyway, because I just realized what bugged me so much.

It was an end zone dance, and I hate end zone dances. And because the game isn't over by a long shot.

Now, the sum total of my military knowledge and experience has been watching the Ken Burns Civil War thing, and reading Red Dawn Rising. I have no war fantasies, I have no service record, fantastical or otherwise, and I'm not an armchair general. I would never be flippant about the risk and loss of the lives of our soldiers (or our police and firemen, for that matter), or of any of those who put themselves in harm's way to protect and serve.

But when I saw that banner saying "Mission Accomplished," I thought, no, no, it isn't accomplished at all, it's barely begun, and if we're going to do this thing, accept this challenge, fully absorb the import of this moment, it's going to wind up making the Hundred Years War look like a performance of Nicholas Nickleby.

And please don't hand me that "Well, he just meant the major operations, and the rest of the message was more nuanced, and if you read the text . . ."

Baloney. I support the president in all of this, but what he should have done then, in my opinion, is what he can still do now. What I've been waiting for. What the whole country needs, for, against, and in between.

A speech. A big one. A grave one. Say that the world is a very bad place and has been for a long time, and that we're going to stop it in its tracks and make it better because we have to, and because, as Tony Blair said when he spoke to Congress, "It's your destiny."

Stand next to a map of Iraq, and another one of the world, and point out what's good and what's bad, what's been done and what's left. Say, "You may disagree, but here's where we are, and here's where we're going."

Most important, say, "It may happen before, during, or after the election, but I don't care, I'm doing it because it's right, and if I'm president again next year, I'm going to keep doing it."

And then win. Win in Iraq, and then look around for other threats like a silverback gorilla after slapping the head off of an upstart.

Message to the administration: No one in Europe or on the left is ever, ever, ever going to like you from seeing a photograph of a marine handing a bag of groceries to a woman in a burkha. Jacques Chirac is never going to say, "Well, they have built a lot of community centers. Maybe Bush was right."

Win. Stopping building schools. Win. There's plenty of time and need for hospitals, but first . . . Win. Yes, yes, Iraqi girls can be very empowered by seeing a female colonel running an outreach program, and we can all chip in for the posters that say "Take Your Daughters To Mosque Day," but in the meantime, would you please win.

If I have to listen to one more administration spokesperson say, "The overwhelming number of Iraqis is with us, it's just a small percentage of cranks causing all the trouble," I'll be tempted to say something I swore I never would: "Du-uuh."

A small percentage, huh? About the same size as the few thousand Bolsheviks who took over the 100 million Russians in 1917? More? Less?

In service of this goal, I would like to propose a new slogan. It's based on the old anti-war chant from the sixties, "Peace Now!" You must've heard that one. Demonstrators have been shouting it for the last 40 years. "Peace Now, Peace Now, Peace Now." Hell, I think I probably shouted it, myself, somewhere around '73. (This would have been shortly before the drinking age in Massachusetts went down to 18, after which my friends and I took to shouting far more sensible things, like, "You can't cut us off, it's only 11:00. Hey, let go of me.")

Here's the new slogan: Win now.

Okay, hold it. Sorry again. Maybe I'm wrong. Yeah, I'm sure everything's okay. It doesn't seem so rosy to me, but, after all, what do I know? Nothing. What does everyone else know? Everything. Yeah, no problem.

Hey, what do you know? It's working again. I feel better already.

Larry Miller is a contributing humorist to The Daily Standard and a writer, actor, and comedian living in Los Angeles.

[McGavin999]

Well, you got it right Larry, you know nothing.

[fourfivesix]

typical weekly standard. it would seem all the good conservative coulumnists are anti-war and over at The American Conservative and Lewrockwell.com

[Mr. Bird]

Here's the new slogan: Win now.

They're trying Larry, you putz. No one is happy with the loss of American soldiers' lives, no one is happy that Iraq hasn't just rolled over on its back and let us impose our will.

It's amazing that the same people with such keen hindsight with 9/11 refuse to look back to their pre-invasion predictions. We were supposed to lose at least 10,000 men just getting to Baghdad. We were supposed to inflict at least a half million civilian casualties. The Iraqi oilfields were to be set aflame, with the plumes of smoke mimicking a nuclear winter.

I can't speak to the calls for more troops; I'm no military expert. But it seems to me that several hundred American heroes have purchased (with their lives) a chance for a new beginning for several million Iraqis. That's no small feat, and it deserves to be applauded. I believe they can and will see it through.

[WOSG]

I thought the article was a good one. He was right to call the carrier speech an 'end zone dance', it was, and in some ways it was deserved, but our negative media uses that and then launches in the tale of woe as a way to undermine credibility. Bush needed to and still needs to focus on the positive, while making perfectly clear that the war on terror continues and challenges lay ahead, in Iraq, at home and elsewhere.

It would be a good idea for Bush to give a more in depth speech about progress. He did it on his saturday radio address, he expressed it was a 'tough week' but continued to show resolve.

It's the right balance, but it needs a higher profile. He did a major speech in September, likely a major speech is due around June/July if not right now.

btw, the 'anti-war' conservatives are as soured as weeks old milk. And about as healthy for you. Any decent conservative needs to understand we are in a war, a war we have decided not to fight since about 1979 to sept 9, 2001. well, now we are fighting it and some knuckleheads want to give up, curl up in a ball in 'fortress america', or think themselves geniuses because they are good at cranky whining and second-guessing and monday am quarterbacking.

Those who think fighting terror amounts to 'imperialism' and all that blather need to be shown the door, they are cranks. Particularly the wretches who have a 'thing' about Israel, they really stink up the joint.

[monday]

"But it seems to me that several hundred American heroes have purchased (with their lives) a chance for a new beginning for several million Iraqis."

The Iraqis don't deserve it. They are animals who deserve nothing better than another Saddam Hussein. I say take their oil fields to pay for the war, and leave them to fight it out among themselves.

[hatfieldmccoy]

You know on most days, I'm absolutely with you. I see the Iraqi people more inclined to be cowards than patriots, given to vicious thuggery as a response to legitimate efforts of international assistance. I would be more convinced of this if it were not for my distrust of the reporting mainstream media. I can't honestly say my opinion of Iraq is not poisoned by the unrelenting negative coverage. I do think we are working with a people that do not have a core of respect for human life... hmmmm... very similar to the pro abortion left in this country

[Brian Allen]

<< A small percentage, huh? About the same size as the few thousand Bolsheviks who took over the 100 million Russians in 1917? More? Less? >>

Fewer than Ten Per Cent of the Americans alive back when kicked off our War of Independence and less than 30% of them 'made it happen' and 'saw it through.'

And History's most prolific-ever child rapist and mass-murderer, Mao Tze Tung's, grizzly gang and its lying, looting, thieving and mass-murdering, self-annointed, self-appointed and self-perpetuating heirs and all of their bloody thugs have never amounted to even 5% of "china's" population.

Shall I go on?

[Fledermaus]

I quit reading Miller's articles...he's foolish and sees too much in the light of an actor and they don't think hard enough to make me change my opinion.

[Fledermaus]

Under the standards by the media and Larry Miller, an idiot normally, FDR made HUGE mistakes doing end zone dances after almost every victory in a struggle.

My goodness, they've made movies of battles in WWII...and Iraq is just another battle in the War on Terror whether anyone thinks so or not. Calling it the War in or on Iraq shows the stupidity of any news person, pundit, writer or network, including Fox.

[Just Lori]

But when I saw that banner saying "Mission Accomplished," I thought, no, no, it isn't accomplished at all, it's barely begun, and if we're going to do this thing, accept this challenge, fully absorb the import of this moment, it's going to wind up making the Hundred Years War look like a performance of Nicholas Nickleby.



Why is the "Mission Accomplished" thing STILL being miscontrued? It was "Mission Accomplished" for that one particular ship and the sailors on it! They had done what they set out to do, and were headed home after they completed THEIR mission!

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

There was no "end zone dance". The Commander-in-Chief is allowed to boost the morale of his troops and thank them for a job well done (the taking of Baghad was just that).

His speech specifically warned of the dangers ahead. There was nothing in his words that any reasonable person could construe as signifying the end of the war. No reasonable person... just Democrats.

I'm so tired of hearing about this nonsense...

[Wisard]

Larry Miller is a contributing humorist to The Daily Standard and a writer, actor, and comedian living in Los Angeles.

I think the above explains Larry's problem.
1 mission was accomplished (Tyrant gone), another needs to be finished(Terrorist gone). What is hard to find out thru the media is that most of those killed in Iraq are not Iraq citizens. The news some times gives it away by stating the number of Iraq's killed in thew attack.

[Democratshavenobrains]

The anti-war people are never going to drop the Mission Accomplished banner. They don't care about the ship's specific mission being done. They'll always associate it with the whole flight suit PR move.

[monday]

"I see the Iraqi people more inclined to be cowards than patriots, given to vicious thuggery as a response to legitimate efforts of international assistance. I would be more convinced of this if it were not for my distrust of the reporting mainstream media. I can't honestly say my opinion of Iraq is not poisoned by the unrelenting negative coverage."

It is difficult to spin the street protests and murders in Iraq as positive. The administration keeps telling us that it is only a small percentage of the population who is causing all the trouble and that may be true, but they would be afraid to cause that trouble if the majority of Iraqis were behind the US.

Iraqis may be glad Saddam is gone but now they want the Americans gone too. They hate us as much as they hated Saddam Hussein. If you don't know that, you need to pull your head out of the sand. The vast majority of Iraqis don't want freedom and democracy and would not take it even if it were forced down their throats.

[Just Lori]

But don't you think we should remind folks (over and over and over again, if need be) that "Mission Accomplished" was referring to that ship, only? Not the WAR. That's what the Dems do. Twist and warp the truth!